Certain early work in call routing technologies are based on previous generations of interactive voice response (IVR) platforms where sharing a centralized business logic and decision source among hundreds of isolated IVR systems within an enterprise is not technically feasible. When calls come to one IVR node, the business logic that decides where to route the call to another IVR node or live agent is hardwired into the service logic being executed on that node. It is difficult to maintain the consistency or update such business logic for any enterprise with a large number of IVR platforms installed in multiple locations.
More recent systems use automatic call distribution (ACD) using a proprietary application programming interface (API) in conjunction with various computer telephony interface (CTI) technologies. The routing logic in the ACD is hardcoded in software programs running on the ACD. Similarly, when one IVR decides to send the call to another IVR or to a live agent via CTI, it cannot access up-to-the-minute business logic in order to determine the best routing strategy. Instead, individual IVRs rely on their own routing table which reside on individual servers. When there are multiple ACD nodes and dozens of IVR platforms across an enterprise call center environment, it is very difficult to maintain a common image across all of these routing tables to reflect a centralized business logic on a real-time basis.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method of handling calls in an enterprise call center environment.